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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Murukku / Chakli

An all-time favourite snack...can be eaten at any time of the day...can gorge on any number of chaklis at a time...one of the best accompaniments for tea...enjoyed by every age-group...

The explanations above shows how much this snack is enjoyed by Indians...and perhaps this is one snack that can be seen throughout India ...south to the north..

There are various ways of making this delicious snack, although the ingredients (urid dal, rice powder, asafoetida, sesame) remain the same..
One way is to dry-fry urid dal, powder it and then mix it with rice powder and rest of the ingedients to form a firm dough.
Another way is to soak urid dal, and then wet grind it and then mix it rest of the ingredients. My grandma suggested to add grated coconut while wet grinding the daal, which gives a rich coconuty flavour to the snack.

However, my favorite method is the one I saw in Vanitha few years back...which is to cook the daal and then mix it with other ingredients. The chaklis made these way are not as hard as the ones prepared by other methods and also very crunchy and easy on kids. The only disadvantage is that the dough need to be handled carefully as its very soft and extra care should be taken while squeezing it out of the achu (chakli maker) as they could easily break.

Cook the moong and urid dal in a pressure cooker by adding 1 cup of water. Once cooked, keep it aside to release the pressure and let it cool down after that. Once cooled, add all the ingredients and knead with your hand to form a smooth dough. Take a chunk of dough and place it inside the chakli maker and squeeze it onto a butter paper in the desired shape of chakli.

Heat a deep bottom pan and pour the required amount of oil. Once its very hot (keep on high flame), carefully transfer the shaped chaklis into the pan. Fry them till golden brown.